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Several thousand march against Kurdish rebel group in Austria

SALZBURG, Austria, Oct 28, 2007 (AFP) - Several thousand people in the Austrian city of Salzburg protested peacefully Sunday against Kurdish rebels amid growing international tension over their Iraq bases, police said.

Responding to a call by the city's Turkish community, an estimated 3,500 people marched through central Salzburg brandishing banners that read, "The PKK is the assassin of 35,000 people" -- referring to Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party.

Some 200,000 Turks live in Austria, roughly a quarter of the country's foreign residents.

A threatened Turkish offensive against PKK bases in northern Iraq has sparked a simmering crisis and efforts to find a peaceful solution have so far proved futile.

On Sunday, the Turkish army killed 15 Kurdish militants in an operation against the PKK, CNN Turk news channel reported.